Posted on 07/14/2002 3:00:18 AM PDT by Clive
There was renewed hope in diplomatic circles of a breakthrough in Zimbabwe's political stalemate this week as Robert Mugabe's government reopened talks with mediators.
Mugabe met Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, while his foreign minister, Stan Mudenge, held discussions with Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon, when leaders gathered in Durban for the launch of the African Union this week.
Obasanjo, President Thabo Mbeki and Australian Prime Minister John Howard had suspended Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for one year after its March presidential elections were deemed to have been rigged.
McKinnon told the Sunday Times that relations between himself and the Zimbabwean government had been icy since the suspension and there had been no real contact between them. "The relationship has not been a good one since the decision. Every time a country has been suspended, you go into a sort of frozen relationship for a while," McKinnon said.
He was given the task of engaging the Zimbabwean government, particularly on the land redistribution issue, while Obasanjo and Mbeki were given the responsibility of facilitating reconciliation talks between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The peace talks broke down when Zanu PF withdrew on the basis of the MDC's court challenge to the elections. Mbeki and Obasanjo have so far failed to get the talks back on track.
But McKinnon said his talks with Mudenge this week were a "positive development". "I had about an hour with Stan Mudenge. We put a few cards on the table and are trying to normalise dialogue between us, which, as I say, has been virtually zero since the suspension.
I haven't asked for a meeting with President Mugabe. I asked him [Mudenge] to give me an update of where they were and they believe that a lot of the land issues will be settled before the end of the year," he said.
McKinnon also held talks with about a dozen African leaders who were feeling the spillover effect of the Zimbabwean crisis. "They all said the same thing - that it is time to normalise things and that they believe that there is a desire for that in Zimbabwe as well," McKinnon said.
Obasanjo described his talks with Mugabe as constructive. "I met with Mugabe for almost an hour. We had the meeting in an atmosphere we hadn't had since London [where the decision to suspend Zimbabwe was taken]. It was something very good," Obasanjo said. "We are making progress. It may not be as fast as we like, but we are making progress."
Obasanjo has also briefed United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan on his meeting with Mugabe. "He was so heartened that he wanted to meet Mugabe," said Obasanjo.
Mbeki did not discuss the crisis with Mugabe this week. There has been a cooling of relations between the two leaders since a confidential letter Mbeki sent to Mugabe urging him back to the negotiating table was leaked to Zimbabwe's state-owned press. McKinnon said it was not clear what steps Obasanjo and Mbeki would take next. "They want to keep that very much to themselves but they want to keep up the dialogue with President Mugabe, obviously, and try and normalise things."
The Commonwealth troika would have to assess the situation after at least 11 months before deciding whether to readmit Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth or to take further action, said McKinnon.
This article makes it clear that the people of Zimbabwe cannot look to Africa or the Commonwealth for any relief from Mugabe's atrocities.
Some day some successor of Clinton will stand at the Harare airport and apologise for having looked the other way while atrocities were taking place.
As to the farmers, sauve qui peut.
As to the Indian merchants, get ready to move and start putting your assets off-shore for your turn is next.
As to the Ndbele, get ready fot another gukurahundi.
As to the Shona, unless you who are in the majority are prepared to take some risks to get rid of these people, you can look forward to living a hand-to-mouth existance under an increasingly totalitarian regime.
And the best of the land that has been taken away from the commercial farmers will be owned by Mugabe's relatives and cronies while the remainder will sink into a primitive subsistence agrarian state.
But the consequences of colonialism will have been reversed.
I am feeling particularly pessimistic this morning.
Can't say why. Perhaps it is because I haven't had my tea and scones yet.
How nice Annan is pleased. Informative article, great post Clive.
I remember listening to Robbie Noel about 10 years ago tell about Rhodesia on his shortwave program. If it wouldn't be setting such a dangerous precedent, the UN could make itself useful in Zimbabwe (for a change).
Carolyn
We are about to witness the totally unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Diplomatic twaddle such as in this article won't change that.
Every line you wrote describes the truth.
The majority seemed to be paralyzed by their shame that the same old story has played out - Africa wins again.
No action will be taken as long as the majority thinks they have something to lose. Only when it becomes evident that twenty years of effort and progress have been lost, and that they will be eating grass will they realize that they have nothing to lose.
Annan won't act, nor will Obasanjo or Mbeki.
That is because Mugabe is the eminence gris of the southern African revolutionary old-boy network.
Note that the first official act of the new AU was to suspend Madagascar for having ousted its president, while at the same time treating Mugabe as an honoured member and ignoring his atrocities.
Well, this caused me to look up "gukurahundi" and I wish I hadn't. It seems that the Ndbele, the second largest tribe in Zimbabwe, were in opposition to Mugabe and had the gukurahundi, a North Korean trained military group unleashed on them. Approximately 20,000 people were killed, often in very horrible ways. Yep, Mugabe and his trained attack dogs have no love for the Ndbele and they'll get it again.
Shona word meaning "storm that sweeps away the chaff"
Which says a lot about what Mugabe's people thought about the Ndebele.
The massacres were conducted by the 5th Brigade, North Koreasn trained.
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